Ex-Director Convicted Of Stealing From Emmett Till’s Cemetery

CHICAGO — The former director of a historic Black cemetery south of Chicago was convicted Friday in a money-making scheme that involved digging up bodies and reselling plots, a development that left still-bitter relatives reliving the grief of not knowing their loved ones’ final resting place.

The Grio Reports:

Carolyn Towns, 51, of Blue Island, pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

Towns was director of Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip — the burial site of lynching victim Emmett Till and blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington — when prosecutors say she and three workers desecrated hundreds of graves.